Wait a minute, are you kidding me?
Is there a blogging equivalent of a double take, because I’m doing that right now. Maine labor boss Jack McKay is a tricky guy. He has been trying to conflate union leadership elections, with union organization elections in an effort to suggest that unions like secret ballots. But if you know anything about unions, you [more...]

Posted Thu, 28 Aug 2008 .

Some Common Sense in Minnesota
Minnesota, for one reason or another, has quickly become the epicenter of the debate about the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Earlier this summer, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor party (DFL) Chairman called us liars for suggesting that the bill would eliminate secret ballot elections in workplace unionization elections. We, in turn, challenged him to [more...]

Posted Wed, 27 Aug 2008 .

Report: Union Math, Union Myths

Read the Full Report (.pdf, 88k)

Since its peak in the 1950s, union membership in the private sector has steadily dropped. To explain the decline, labor leaders have scapegoated businesses for intimidating employees during organizing campaigns. To justify the claim, they cite statistics from union-affiliated researchers which suggest that a significant number of employees are fired in the organizing process. But data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) do not—in any way—substantiate the notion that tens of thousands of employees are wrongly fired each year.

By logically linking organizing campaigns with Unfair Labor Practices, we determined that only 2.7 percent of union organizing campaigns feature an employee illegally fired (and offered reinstatement, typically with back pay). Furthermore, we demonstrate that other research on the subject relies on outdated assumptions that do not represent current NLRB data on the issue.